2002 Sunfire heater fails to blow through vents

I've had my Sunfire for 5 years, and in the last few months it has started to give me problems. First, during the fall months, when the air conditioner was on blowing cold air, the RPM guage would fluctuate between 500 and 1200 RPM, nearly stalling the car on the lows and if the brakes weren't on it would've moved the car forward on the highs. Since the winter has started, the heater has began giving me issues.

During long car trips (approx. 7 hours) the heater would eventually stop blowing through the vents, although you could hear it blowing into what sounded like the passenger side dash. The first trip to the dealership for repairs cost $137 and I had the air actuator replaced, because they felt that was the issue. No such luck. The second trip they replaced the defrost actuator (because it seemed to occur more on the defrost settings), and $78 later, it also didn't work.

The interesting thing about it is if I toggle the vent dial back and forth between defrost and the air cycler (the circular icon) I can sometimes maintain a somewhat reasonable level of air blowing out of the vents to prevent the windows from steaming up, otherwise, it trickles out less and less until virtually nothing is coming out. Today, the issue began to occur as I was driving around the city, so it appears to be getting progressively worse.

Any advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated, the dealerships (I've been to two so far) seem to have no clue as to what can be going on, and I don't want to continue to throw money at it. If I have to, I'll put in a whole new heating system, but that's probably more than the car itself is worth.

1 Suggested Answer

Hi,
a 6ya Mechanic can help you resolve that issue over the phone in a minute or two.
Best thing about this new service is that you are never placed on hold and get to talk to real repair professionals here in the US. click here to Talk to a Mechanic (only for users in the US for now) and get all the help you need. Goodluck!

Tell us some more! Your answer needs to include more details to help people.You can't post answers that contain an email address.Please enter a valid email address.The email address entered is already associated to an account.Login to postPlease use English characters only.

sorry I can't give you a hard fast answer because I am having 38C days and can wear T shirt 12 months of the year, but check your thermostat first, if stuck open it will never get hot, check for blockages in the heater hoses and lastly, your tap operation

you say that you feel air but it isnt forceful. the answer is your ac/heater blower motor resistor. it is located under the pass side glove box and the blower motor is a big black cylinder and right behind it on the left is the resistor. take that out. got to autozone and pick one up for 25$.

If the top hose is hot and the bottom is cold, your definitely not getting circulation. You,ve already done alot of work to this vehicle so you have pretty much answered your own question. About the only thing left is the heater core. Of course, I dont want to be the one to tell you it is definitely the heater core because obviously I am not looking at the vehicle. But If i was a betting man, thats where my money would be.

Change the thermostat first. Check that the antifreeze is a good fresh 50/50 coolant mixture. Antifeeze goes bad after a year or so which could give you problems. Last possible cause would be a plugged or failing heater core that provides the heat. You can go to autozone.com and register for full free online repair manual for your saturn

the heator core has gone out this is a divise that uses hot coolent from the engine to heat the air that blowes tru your vents it is located behind the glove box some times it's tricky to reach look under the hood to find 2 hoses running side by side in to the fire wall on the passenger side to pin point the location